Key questions ahead of Trump’s primetime address
Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Rick Jackson will hold his first campaign rally of the general election.
- Raphael Warnock teams up with GOP senator on water conservation effort.
- The U.S. House voted down a proposal to limit military aid to Israel.
Primetime rumors
Generally speaking, we know President Donald Trump’s primetime address tonight will be about election integrity.
But the rest is speculation. There are rumors that he will try yet again to prove that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election even though recounts, lawsuits and investigations confirmed he did not. He could resurface investigations into foreign interference, although to date there is no evidence that it affected the outcome of the election.
And of course we are standing by to see how much the president says about Georgia, where his 2020 loss came at the same time that Democrats won both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats. U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have been on the offensive in recent days, preemptively criticizing Trump for rehashing baseless six-year old arguments.
Ossoff got another opportunity on Wednesday during the confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to be the next director of national intelligence.
Earlier in the hearing, Clayton declared: “I’m not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as president of the United States.” But Ossoff pressed Clayton on whether he believed Biden won the 2020 election.
Clayton wouldn’t answer, saying he had answered it already and didn’t want to participate in “political theater.” Ossoff rebutted that it shouldn’t be controversial to answer the question, and he said only those loyal to the president seemed to find it difficult to do so. He asked Clayton at least six times. At one point, Clayton just sat in silence.
“You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America’s intelligence community,” he told Clayton. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions?”
Things to know
Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:
- A Gwinnett County judge says Uber’s CEO must testify in a lawsuit that contends the company is liable for the alleged sex trafficking of a 14-year-old girl, Rosie Manins reports.
- The U.S. Department of Education is reportedly investigating the DeKalb, Richmond and Savannah-Chatham county school systems for the practice of letting teachers or employees who were accused of sexual misconduct transfer to other positions, Cassie Alexander reports.
- Keisha Lance Bottoms is working to make inroads with Georgia’s rural voters as the Democrat runs for governor, Sophia Eppley reports.
Opening act
Trump isn’t the only one making a big speech today.
Republican nominee for governor Rick Jackson will hold his first campaign rally of the general election in Cleveland just a few hours before Trump is scheduled to address the nation.
As Caleb Groves reports, speculation has been building that Trump could take a big swing at how states conduct elections. Among experts’ biggest fears is an order to decertify the voting machines that Georgia uses, throwing the election into chaos.
How Jackson responds to the latest fallout from Trump’s fixation on 2020 will be closely watched. He has repeatedly vowed to be “Trump’s favorite governor” and echoed the president’s false claims of widespread election fraud.
Jackson has said “what happened in 2020 is just terrible,” and that it’s “really easy to believe that, for the last 40 years, Fulton County has been cheating on voting.”
And shortly after launching his bid, he aired an ad comparing Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to Judas for refusing to help Trump overturn the election.
But Jackson now faces a different electorate. Swing voters and independents weary of the 2020 fight could decide the governor’s race, giving him every incentive to sidestep Trump’s latest claims and focus instead on his case against Bottoms.
Bottoms is working to make sure he can’t. During a fundraising swing through the Northeast, she stopped at MS NOW’s studios Tuesday to argue that Trump’s message could reverberate well beyond his 2020 defeat.
“It’s not just about 2020. It’s about this year’s election and 2028,” she said, adding that Trump is “essentially calling into question not just his loss” but also the GOP Senate defeats from earlier this decade.
Rainy season
Weeks of rain have brightened Georgia’s drought outlook. As of this morning, just over 6% of the state is in “severe drought.” Three months ago it was nearly 90%.
Still, 86% of the state remains “abnormally dry.”
The improvement comes as Warnock teamed up with Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas to file legislation that would create an “office of water supply, water conservation and drought resiliency” within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“A resilient water supply is crucial to the future of Georgia’s families, farmers, and businesses, and this new office will help provide communities the tools they need to protect this vital resource and build long-term drought resiliency,” Warnock said.
Listen up
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we explain the context around Trump’s primetime address tonight and why another fight over the 2020 election could reshape the state’s biggest races this fall.
You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
Johnson’s vote
The U.S. House on Wednesday rejected a proposal to limit military aid to Israel. But Democrats were split with more than half of them joining Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie in supporting the effort.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, was the only member of Georgia’s delegation to vote for it. He signed onto a letter with 26 others outlining their reasoning for backing Massie’s amendment.
“For nearly six decades, Israeli security forces and military authorities have enforced the occupation of the Palestinian territories, including through restrictions on freedom of movement, arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial killings,” they wrote. “It is clear that existing human rights conditions on the use of American security assistance have not been meaningfully enforced. Enough is enough.”
The proposed amendment to the spending bill for State Department agencies would have eliminated $3.3 billion in funding for Israel. It failed on a vote of 314-104 with every Republican but Massie opposed, along with 98 Democrats. Ten Democrats voted “present.”
The growing Democratic support for cutting ties to Israel comes in response to what lawmakers are hearing from voters regarding the humanitarian toll of its war in Gaza.
Today in Washington
- Trump will meet at the White House with new South Carolina U.S. Sen. Darline Graham and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. He will give a nationally televised speech at 9 p.m. on election integrity.
- The House will vote on a veterans benefits bill.
- The Senate will vote on a Trump nominee and on a proposal to roll back a Trump Medicaid policy.
Shoutout
Today’s birthday
- State Sen. Tonya Anderson, D-Lithonia.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
State Charter Schools Commissioner Scott Sweeney, the former chair of the Georgia Board of Education and a former Cobb County school Board member, died on Friday.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.